The organization of judgements based on positive and negative adjectives in the Bannister-Fransella Grid Test.

This study compared the level of organization of judgements involving evaluatively positive (E+) adjectives such as kind with that of judgements involving evaluatively negative (E-) adjectives such as stupid in the Bannister-Fransella Grid Test. The grids of 275 subjects, including 43 normals, 24 thought-disordered schizophrenics, 30 non-thought-disordered schizophrenics, 50 "mixed" schizophrenics, 18 depressives, 16 neurotics, and 94 undiagnosed new admissions were examined. The organization of judgements based on E+ ones across all ten groups. These results are inconsistent with the "null hypothesis" that the grids of thought-disordered schizophrenics contain only random "error variance" since they reveal a source of systematic variation in the grids of thought-disordered schizophrenics as well as those of other populations. These data were discussed also in relation to the hypothesis that comparative judgements involving E- adjectives are more difficult than those involving E+ ones.